


Employing The Madmen

by CharbroilLaFlamme



Category: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: Aldmeri Dominion, Altmer - Freeform, Betrayal, Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, Gen, Jerk with a heart of jerk, Non-Graphic Violence, Original Character Death(s), Original Character(s), Thalmor, Traitor, Villain Protagonist, high elf, scumbag protagonist
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-18
Updated: 2018-05-18
Packaged: 2019-05-08 11:06:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14692917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CharbroilLaFlamme/pseuds/CharbroilLaFlamme
Summary: More of Aeolus being a traitorous scumbag.





	Employing The Madmen

**Author's Note:**

> To be totally honest, Aeolus is very fun to write. He’s a self-confidant, sleazy fellow with a superiority complex. He dabbles in necromancy, as well as being an indiscriminate killer (calls himself an “assassin”) who targets people based on how close to succeeding him they are.  
> He refuses to contact the Dark Brotherhood based on the fact that he likes to be the one who offs his rivals. That being said, the only individual that he respects is his teacher who brought him in from his days of vagrancy and put him on his path.

Aeolus threw an impressive amount of thought into his plans, contracted killers, as well as factions who regarded him as another Thalmor puppet and prepared to attack.

He rose his hands, smiling calmly. “Please. Please, I am no _puppet_ , gentlemen.” He said, “But I have one that I would like to have erased.” He added.

“What’s in it for _us_?” The Forsworn chief asked. He jabbed his toothed sword at Aeolus threateningly.

Aeolus sighed and relented. “You get to have him and do with him what you please.” He shrugged. “Sacrifice him, eat him, hang, draw and quarter him, I don’t care.” He smiled rather stiffly. “Just get rid of him.”

“How about you get out of here? We want _nothing_ to do with _your_ kind. Your people invade our lands, the Reach. And you hope to sway us _your_ way.” The chief stamped the dirt defiantly, pointing at Aeolus. “ _Fool!_ ” He barked.

“ _My_ people did _nothing_ ,” Aeolus shook his head. “Anyway, I did not want to have to do this.” He made a small sprite of flame in his palm. “Do as I say, or your wretched little settlement becomes _kindling_.”

The chief grit his teeth at this daring stranger. “We answer to no one.” He rose his jagged great-sword, advancing.

How dare this... _outsider_ come into _his_ territory and threaten _his_ people. _His_ land. “ _For The Forsworn!_ ”

A mere second passed, and Aeolus’ tiny, inconsequential spark turned into a monstrous, all-consuming _orb_ , the great glow burbled and hissed.

Aeolus waved the hungry inferno toward the charging native—then the Chief was duly incinerated in the blaze that Aeolus conjured.

Nothing left but a pile of ash and a scorched, discarded long sword. Orange ash flicked into the air and disappeared.

“Anyone _else_?” Aeolus said, casually blowing soft smoke from his fingertips, surveying the milling, stock still clan, arms behind his back. “Does anyone _else_ have any objections?” He waited for a few seconds. “ _No?_ Now then. I have an offer...”

Aeolus’ latest rival was a mousy, sneaky little Thalmor agent that knew far too much of his business. _Sanyan_.

He was an utter, damned annoyance. Shifty-eyes, had a stubby little blanket of beard on his chin and a moustache of equal thinness. He was rather short for an Altmer, and notoriously inquisitive as well as a prolific gossip.

And Aeolus knew _exactly_ where he was going next. Not by any clandestine methods, of course, but because the fool told him. Of his own accord, Aeolus expected no less of him.

He was part of the next detachment of Justiciars coming to check up on Markarth’s Talos situation. A pointless fight. No matter how many they captured, more sprang up.

Aeolus could taste the victory. As soon as Sanyan stepped foot on the Reach, he was going to get mysteriously ambushed by a group of madmen. How tragic. And so very fortunate. Nobody would know. _Bye-bye evidence._

And Aeolus need not worry about getting his hands dirty.

Oh, no, He needed only to make sure Sanyan made a wrong turn into a dead end... right into the hands of a clan of bloodthirsty, angry Forsworn.

 

* * *

 

Sanyan had indeed been stopped cold in his tracks by a sharp, dangerous-looking barricade.

Aeolus watched it unfold from above on a nearby hill. Waiting. Perparing. His hood thrown over his head to guard from the sun.

Sanyan looked up and saw him, somewhat confused, but brushed it off. “Aeolus, help us break down this barricade!”

Aeolus cleared his throat. “ _Sanyan_ ,” he began. “You have meddled in business not your own.” He said down to him.

An arrow flew from a nearby hill and struck one of Sanyan’s peers in the side of the head. The body took a moment to fall. Sanyan flinched at the sound of the arrow’s entry.

“I have done this to ensure that you cannot pass on that business to others.”

“Aeolus, you _traitor_!” He withdrew his bow.

Another stray arrow killed the second agent, just barely streaking by Sanyan’s head.

Sanyan ducked down.

Aeolus laughed at Sanyan’s pitiful attempts at avoidance. “I can’t have my secrets getting out, can I?”

Then Sanyan felt something.

A sharp, _painful_ something.

It hit him in the back and broke through his front. A jagged, crude little arrow.

He dazedly touched the tip of the bloodied arrow, processing what it was. Then he dropped his bow and fell to his knees. _Gods_. “Aeolus, _why_?” He quavered, feeling oddly empty, but heavy. And there was only the slightest tingle in his fingertips. Ah, of course.

“ _Simple_ , dearest Sanyan,” Aeolus grabbed his own bow, withdrawing a borrowed Forsworn arrow—embellished with a Hagraven feather at the end—and pulling the string taut, aiming at Sanyan’s pitifully shivering body. “It’s just _business_.”

**Author's Note:**

> Some fun facts as a bonus:  
> — I hear him voiced by Corey Burton. Somewhere between his portrayal of the Time Trapper (JLA Adventures: Trapped In Time) and Soundwave (Transformers)  
> — His father, Angomo, was a thief, and his mother, Loraale, was a poor woman he had grown estranged from.  
> — He has a touch of Dunmer blood in him.


End file.
